Pac-12 dumping San Francisco broadcast facility, going remote

The Pac-12, including the Pac-12 Network, is set to vacate its San Francisco office by next June as part of a flexible return-to-work plan announced by the conference. 

A smaller facility for production-focused personnel – likely including a studio for wrap-around programming on the network – will be set up with the bulk of staff working remotely. The conference itself will have no official headquarters. 

“The Pac-12 Conference announced today plans to move to an ongoing flexible and remote work environment to best support Pac-12 staff and deliver more revenue back to member universities to support student-athletes,” noted the conference in a statement. 

“In addition to the remote work environment, the Pac-12 will continue to support and invest in its state-of-the-art broadcast and content production, including relocating to a new production facility after the end of the Conference’s current lease in June 2023. The location for the new production facility has not yet been determined.”

The current office, at 360 3rd Street near the Moscone Center and Yerba Buena Gardens, is part of a neighborhood that has seen massive change since the network opened its broadcast facility in 2012. 

Only blocks from The Embarcadero and waterfront, the facility has been previously criticized for its location and rent which is estimated to be $696,000 per month or $8.35 million annually.

The Big Ten, by comparison, is estimated to spend $1.5 million on its main home in Chicago along with a smaller office in New York City. 

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“The financial benefit to conference members is roughly $7 million in savings per university over the next decade. That by itself is worth celebrating because the media rights revenue projections for Big Ten and SEC double up the Pac-12 in the coming decade,” noted John Canzano via his newsletter on the potential financial upside of the relocation. 

Unlike other conferences such as the SEC and ACC, Pac-12 does not co-locate its broadcast studios with a network partner. Pac-12 also manages the production and staffing for its network, something that is handled by Fox and ESPN for other conferences.

The current Pac-12 location includes offices for the conference and network along with 90,000 square feet of production space with multiple studios, control rooms and audio booths. The studio design, which debuted with the network in August 2012, won NewscastStudio’s Set of the Year award for 2012.